kshoemoney

15 hours ago, maddymurtaza said:

Hey someone i know did it and they got their spousal visa on it 

Thanks, yeah I kinda figured it would work. I looked into WebWed more throughly after this and they are definitely legit.

10 minutes ago, geowrian said:

There is no length of presence required for ROC. However, if the time abroad is without the spouse and is extended, it may raise questions about the validity of the marriage since you are not living together.

Ok thank you so much for your help!

If a spouse is granted CR-1 visa, but they need to stay in their home country for a while after they were approved (say they needed to stay past than the 6 months they are allowed to activate the visa), could they travel to the US to activate the CR-1 and then travel back to their home country until they have tied up all their loose ends there and then come back to live in the US after that? In short, there any requirements that you stay in the US after you activate your CR-1?

Also, would this affect at all your application to remove the conditional status after 2 years? Is there any residency length requirement on that application?

Thank you

1 hour ago, Strawberrymermaid said:

@kshoemoney did you find out more information about this? I still can’t quite wrap my head around how it works- even the marriage certificate is the same as it would be if it were in person in Utah 

From what I can gather, it is a legit wedding, but for the purposes of immigration, you would have to find a way to consummate it before filing the petition, as the USCIS would view it the same way they view proxy marriages, even though legally speaking it is a traditional marriage and your marriage certificate would look the same as one that is issued when you get married in person. Most of the licenses that come as a result of getting married with this company, are coming out of Utah County, Utah or Washington D.C., as I guess those are jurisdicitons that have pretty open marriage laws. Also people have said that you could bypass the company and do an online wedding on your own through Utah County and save yourself hundreds of dollars if you wanted to.

Having said that, after a poster here mentioned that Gibraltar is open to all travel and has legal gay marriage (two things I was not aware of), as well as an easy marriage process for foreigners, I have shifted my focus to researching that as many here have said that if you can try to do your marriage in-person you should, since USCIS looks online and proxy marriages with much more scrutiny. 

45 minutes ago, JFH said:

But if you have to wait for travel bans to be over to meet up to satisfy the official requirements, why not get married when you meet up? You can’t file your paperwork until you meet up so you do not gain any time with your plan. 
 

Is he an Italian citizen? If so, as soon as the bans are over have him come here on the VWP and get a quickie wedding in Vegas - @Loren Y can help with that, file the I-130, enjoy a vacation together and he goes back to Italy to wait for the process to be complete. Simple. Why make a stressful process any more difficult than it needs to be. 

I addressed this earlier, but getting gay married in a country (though I just found out Gibraltar is an option so maybe that is an exception) is much harder than consummating. Our only other options are Mexico and the UK and we would have to spend several weeks of longer in the country in order to get married, while if we did a marriage online, we could just find any country with the cheapest airfare that has open travel and both rendezvous there and consummate the marriage. I know it's not ideal, etc. etc., but neither is staying in London for six weeks to fulfill all their requirements to get married.

Edit: Again, I'm not saying we'll end up doing it, we're just trying to explore all the options.

9 minutes ago, Sarah_k92 said:

Head to Croatia! They opened boarders to US citizens and get married! 😂

I don't believe same-sex marriage is legal in Croatia, but I could be wrong.

1 hour ago, JFH said:

Not 100% correct. A proxy marriage has to be consummated. An in-person marriage can be unconsummated, which is how a death row inmate was able to petition for his wife despite having no conjugal visits with her. They got married in person. The marriage is unlikely ever to be consummated unless something dramatic happens with his case. 

Well, we could do this marriage online, then meet up somewhere and consummate it. That would be pretty expensive for sure, but probably quicker than waiting until travel bans are over, which no one knows how long that will be but my guess is at least through the rest of this year, and maybe as long as the middle of next year. The reason you would do it is cuz it's easier to get married here and consummate elsewhere than getting gay married elsewhere at the moment, unless you plan to stay there for several weeks of months, which is also very expensive. You mentioned I should just wait till covid's over. Maybe so, but before I resign to up to an entire additional year to our prospects to be together, I think it's worth it to exhaust all available options and then choose the best one. There are no GOOD options here, so I figure I'll shake all the trees, turn over all the rocks, and then we'll decide (with the help of a lawyer probably).

4 hours ago, Melc said:

 

Happily gay married in Gibraltar here. Can confirm it's entirely legal. 

 

@kshoemoney I don't think Gibraltar is barring entry to US citizens/residents. Just make sure to transfer in the UK when you do fly over. 

 

Just as an aside, getting married in the UK would be more difficult as you'd require a specific Visa to get married there, even if you normally do not require one as a tourist. This does not apply to Gibraltar. Gibraltar also does not require apostilles. 

Oh wow I didn't realize this. Gibraltar didn't show up on the list of legal places for gay marriage, nor do the travel website I have looked at have an entry for the travel restrictions in Gibraltar on their aggregated page. I will definitely look into this and may pm you for more info on how it works if that's okay.

7 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Have you looked into Gibraltar or Denmark or Iceland?  Those countries are often cited here on VJ as being relatively 'easy' in terms of red tape for two foreigners to marry.  And I'm not sure about Gibraltar, but same-sex marriage is legal in Denmark and Iceland.

I cannot enter those countries at the moment AFAIK because I am in the U.S.

19 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Yes. But then why not just get married normally anywhere? You would be making things more complicated than it needs to be.

 

Due to the travel bans and that we are a same-sex couple, our only open options to get gay married right now are probably Mexico and the UK. Neither is a great options as, supposing we get thru a port of entry in one of those countries, there a few other hoops to get through before we could get married. So if there was a way as simple as getting married online, it could make sense to take it. That said, we don't want to risk wasting a year in processing only to find out they don't recognize our marriage. It is perhaps possible to use WebWed to get married and then use that to get me into visit Italy to consummate the marriage, then file the petition. But I think i need to talk to an attorney to figure out the best option.

Thanks for all your comments though, they were really helpful.

2 minutes ago, Loren Y said:

Could always file a K1, as you have met within 2 years it seem like, and have proof of the meeting. Just throwing that out there. Now I will wait for the bashing to begin on me suggesting a K1. I'm just stating an option, so please, have mercy. LOL.

Haha yeah, we did think of that, but the 8+ month period without work while awaiting AOS is a tough pill to swallow.

37 minutes ago, James120383 said:

completely illegal with regards to immigration and US law 

I am really open to being proven wrong, but from the second-hand info that I've been able to find online, these weddings do appear to be legal and they are not legally considered proxy weddings, as you are both present (virtually) for the ceremony. I am still very skeptical of how USCIS would see them, but someone on reddit who actually got married with this service called the county clerk from the county that issued their license (Utah County, Utah), and the clerk confirmed that it is valid as they have very open marriage laws there (apparently there is no requirement that you are physically present for the ceremony). I am sure USCIS would have a thing or two say about it and it probably is very risky to try to get a visa with one, but they do not appear to be illegal marriages, as far as I can tell. Again tho, I could be wrong.

Just now, pushbrk said:

For US immigration purposes, context is KING.  Sworn affidavits mean nothing unless there's evidence of being together and then they are not needed as are evidence of nothing.  All USCIS is looking for is primary evidence the couple was together in the same place, during or/and after the proxy etc. marriage took place.  Passport stamps and boarding passes are primary evidence of travel.

 

I still advise against any sort of proxy marriage.  If you can get there later, you can marry during that visit too.

Right, I agree with you. I just meant I've heard some people submit affidavits in addition to proof that they have been together physically in order to fulfill the consummation requirement. And thanks for your advice, I appreciate it.

50 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Incorrect.

 

People can have all the kids they want and submit all the affidavits they want, but those are not requirements.

 

You need a marriage certificate and evidence of having been in each other's company on or after the date of marriage.

Right, but the reason they want to establish that you were together in the same physical space is to try to establish that you satisfied the statute to have consummated the marriage (hence the affidavits and children, supposing they born 9+ months after marrying). I think we might be getting a little far afield from the original topic though, lol

50 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

From USCIS site 

https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-g-chapter-2

 

Relationships where one party is not present during the marriage ceremony (proxy marriages) unless the marriage has been consummated; ^[6] 

 

 

 

Ahh okay, thank you!

1 minute ago, payxibka said:

Not what they are saying.   They are saying prove that you have met face to face post proxy marriage.

Well that isn't what consummate means and apparently in some cases people submit sworn affidavits to say they have "consummated" the marriage and the USCIS looks at things like if you have a child as further proof.

2 hours ago, Timona said:

 

You're making a mountain out of an anthill....just take the simple definition. Have you guys had sex after marriage? That's all USCIS may need. Don't make it difficult for yourself by asking what it means legally, religiously, economically etc....😄😄😄

I guess it just seemed weird to me that the U.S. Government is saying "only counts if you had sex. Prove it!!"

31 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

In USCIS terms it basically means you were both physically present at some point after the ceremony.  I think legally it means you had marital relations, but I don’t think USCIS probes that level of detail.  As to the online marriage thing, I believe USCIS would treat this in a similar manner as a proxy marriage even though it is not exactly the same thing since both spouses will be present online, therefore I agree with the other posters above, if you take this route, you would at some point have to be physically present together before any visa would be approved.

So, if we were to use it get married, and then find a way to meet up and “consummate” the marriage, wouldn’t that fulfill the USCIS requirement?

29 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

You can not get together now because of covid?   Have you even met in person?

 

and no,  if this was legal for immigration ,  all of us would have saved a lot of money in traveling and done this 

 

Thanks for your concern. Yes, we lived together last year when he was here on a J1 and have visited each other many times since, pre-covid. I appreciate that everyone would be using it if it worked but it didn’t appear that people have ever heard of it (again this isn’t legally a proxy marriage) so I was curious. Also while everyone is saying ‘don’t risk it!’, which I tend to agree with, I am curious if anyone actually knows definitively, any examples of this working/not working since it appears these are legal marriages and the licenses are issued by courts in the United States, so is worth at least looking into.

Quote

2 minutes ago, Miriamc said:

From what I understand, this won’t work. Your marriage has to have ‘ consummation’. . 

 

1 minute ago, designguy said:

For immigration purposes the marriage must be "consummated" to be considered legal. Having a zoom wedding and then filing for an immigration petition would not work without seeing each other

 

Sorry, but what does consummation mean in legal terms?

I came across this service last night called WebWed Mobile that offers 100% legal marriages online and given that my boyfriend are not able to see each other right now because of COVID (I am in NYC and he is in Italy), but we want to get married, I thought that if this is legit it would be a lifesaver. I am skeptical because I haven't heard much about it, but they have been operational since 2016 and they do not do proxy marriages, but instead specialize in cyber jurisdiction and you get a traditional marriage certificate. They say they do not offer immigration legal advice, as immigration approval is more complicated than just being married, but that customers of theirs have used marriage licenses through WebWed to get spousal visas.

I am wondering if anyone has used this service and can speak to whether it is acceptable to use for immigration purposes? I would think if it was legit that everyone would be raving about it, but it seems like no one has heard of it. Conversely, if it was a scam I would expect to find people saying that loudly as well, but there isn't really. There are many positive reviews on reviews.io but I would love to find someone that could speak to its legitimacy for immigration purposes. I don't want to do it if it will mean USCIS doesn't look at our marriage as legitimate, but if it does work, then it would be a no brainer to do, since we could get our petition rolling now, since the travel restrictions are likely to be in place for many months in the future anyway. Also, if we were married, they would let him in to visit during covid because they allow in Spouses of U.S. citizens, I believe.

Thanks for your help!